Sunday, October 14, 2012

Blogoversey + Birthday Giveaway!

August 24, 2011 I signed up for blogger and my FIRST ever review went live!

October 10, 1988 I was born, and thus that first review was possible!

I want to celebrate both days with you in one handy dandy giveaway!

Blogging has been such an awesome part of my life, albeit I don't always have time for it in my busy schedule, but it's something that I don't think I would ever consider giving up! Actually, back in May I considered giving it up because I was so distracted by other things that I hadn't even opened blogger in months. I was still reading but I wasn't reviewing and I wasn't talking about books. One faithful day, I logged back onto blogger and realized how much I missed this community. I missed reading reviews and getting excited for new releases. I missed interacting with authors and meeting new friends. So I dusted off my dashboard and got right back to it, and I'm still trying to catch up on reviewing all my reads during that time.

As for advice for new bloggers?

Always interact! It's how you make friends! It's how you find new blogs! It's the most important part of book bloggers! So do you want more followers? Do you want more comments on your posts? Interact with other bloggers! Plain and simple.

Don't bite off more than you can handle. Netgalley is the devil. Seriously. It's so easy to just click a button and add another arc to your ereader. I'm so ashamed of the amount of books I have requested versus the amount of reviews that have gone live. So yeah, if you can't review it in a timely manner, don't request it. I know I know, self control is hard when you have pretties looking at you, but it's for your own good! I promise!

Be consistent. You will lose your entire readership (or most of) if you aren't consistent. That's what I learned when I went MIA last summer. You don't have to blog everyday if it doesn't fit into your schedule, but aim for at least a post a week. There are so many great blogs out there, you don't want yours to get lost in the sea.

That's all I can think of for now. Should I give you some words of wisdom from the my 24 years of living? Naw, don't think so. You'll have to figure it out for yourself! :p

Now on wards to the giveaway!

There will be two winners, the first winner will be able to choose what prize pack he/she wants and then the second will be able to choose from the remaining.

I would sooooo love the Dystopian Pack #1! All the packs look great, but I am a huge fan of dystopian books and haven't read a one of the ones in this prize pack! You are awesome! Thanks and HAPPY BLOGOVERSEY!!! Best wishes!

I love the advice you gave. I wanted to start up my blog this year (I even got the basics done and started experimenting with posting styles) but decided to wait until after this semester is over - I'm taking way too many credits.

Happy Blogiversary and belated Birthday (yay for October babies - I was the 13th).

Congrats on both milestones! I agree about not biting off more than you can chew. I think that can go to all review requests as well. Because you also want to make time to read books that other people are reviewing. I learned that the hard way.